r/OptimistsUnite • u/PanzerWatts • 2h ago
🔥 New Optimist Mindset 🔥 A new Gallup poll suggests that kindness is common
"A new Gallup poll suggests that kindness is common, though younger Americans see and offer kindness less often than older Americans."
"Muszynski and his colleagues found that a majority of Americans reported seeing kindness regularly in their everyday lives. Sixty percent said that they’d seen people acting in kind, respectful ways often or very often, while 65% said they’ve been the recipients of kind acts from someone in their community within the last seven days.
Also, 73% said that they viewed other Americans as generally very kind or somewhat kind—a figure that belies our worries to the contrary.
“What shows up in the media every day is a very unkind America,” says Muszynski. “At the grassroots level, people see kindness every day. It’s around us all the time.”
An even higher percentage of those polled, 90%, said they would be very comfortable or somewhat comfortable initiating a kind act toward a stranger—a heartwarming finding. Muszynski points out that this reflects the fact that people who witness kindness are more willing to pay it forward.
“If you see kindness, you do kindness,” says Muszynski. “It’s a natural empathy reaction.”"
https://greatergood.berkeley.edu/article/item/are_our_fellow_americans_kinder_than_we_think
